Earlier, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo discussed the case with Turkey’s president and foreign minister during a visit to Ankara. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said the meeting was “beneficial and fruitful”.

On Tuesday, Mr Pompeo travelled to Riyadh for talks with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who he said “strongly denied” any involvement in the journalist’s disappearance.

Mr Khashoggi is a US resident and columnist for the Washington Post who went into self-imposed exile last year after reportedly being warned by Saudi officials to stop criticising the crown prince’s policies.

What is the state of the investigation?

On Wednesday afternoon, Turkish investigators entered the Saudi consul’s residence, about 200m (650ft) from the consulate, as part of the probe into Mr Khashoggi’s disappearance.

The team reportedly included prosecutors and forensics experts in white overalls.

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Image caption
The search of the consul’s residence was delayed by a day

The search had been expected to take place on Tuesday, but it was delayed because the consul’s family were still inside, Mr Cavusoglu said.

They eventually left Turkey on a commercial flight on Tuesday afternoon.

Several vehicles with Saudi diplomatic number plates were filmed by CCTV cameras moving from the consulate to the residence just under two hours after the journalist entered the consulate earlier this month.